Album Review – Bronwyn’s “Rattlin’ Bones”

Bluegrass (#520) on the Country DDS.

Imparting enthusiasm and fresh perspectives into a very old genre of music—and in a manner that imparts that invigoration into the audience themselves—Bronwyn puts her signature stamp on bluegrass with new album Rattlin’ Bones, and one that feels like it will leave one of those indelible marks that doesn’t fade easily over time.

How to remain tethered to the roots of the bluegrass genre while also finding unique avenues to express its beauty is the challenge every bluegrass musician has faced ever since Bill Monroe started this whole mess. If you follow a strict adherence to Father Bill’s standards, you run the risk of sounding stuck in time, or coming across simply as a reenactment. You start to color too far outside the lines, and soon it becomes the domain of “jam band” music or even “Americana,” used in derogatory terms by bluegrass devotees.

Bronwyn finds nearly the perfect balance on Rattin’ Bones—her first album under her new bold name, shortened from Bronwyn Keith-Hynes. It’s also her first since Molly Tuttle’s Grammy-winning Golden Highway band dissolved, which Bronwyn played fiddle for, and won a Grammy Award with. But those in the bluegrass world don’t need a more popular reference point to familiarize themselves with Bronwyn. She’s been a premier fiddle player in that universe for a while, earning the IBMA’s Fiddle Player of the Year in both 2021 and 2022, and receiving a Grammy nomination of her own for her 2024 album I Built a World.

Rattlin’ Bones is a bit different though, and not just because of the name change. Unlike her previous album, Bronwyn does the majority of the songwriting herself. Combining blistering instrumentation with very personal-feeling songs, Bronwyn sheds any residual typecasting as being a side person only, and vaults herself into headliner consideration in the bluegrass space.

On the new album, it’s Bronwyn’s name on the front cover, and names like Jerry Douglas on dobro, guitarists Bryan Sutton and Frank Rische, mandolinist Harry Clark, bassists Dennis Crouch and Jeff Picker, banjoist Wes Corbett from the Sam Bush Band, drummer Miles Miller from the Sturgill Simpson universe, and Bronwyn’s former Golden Highway bandmate Dominick Leslie in the fine print.

Rattlin’ Bones has plenty of those straight ahead bluegrass songs that underpin any great bluegrass album, like opener “Sticks and Stones,” and the spirited “Virginia Gal.” The latter is one of many songs on the album that feel autobiographical, including a few that deal with affairs of the heart, probably from past and failed relationships. But one called “Hold Me Down” also stands out, perhaps inspired by her husband and fellow fiddle player Jason Carter who she married in a fairytale wedding at the Grand Ole Opry.

When talking about evolving and pushing bluegrass forward, it doesn’t just involve musical components. It’s about songwriting that goes beyond the historical context and myth-making of original bluegrass. It’s hard to envision Lester Flatt singing a song like Bronwyn’s “Golden Hour Dream” that concludes the album, or the languid and easy lines of “Rainbow Trout.” Bronwyn didn’t enter this phase as a novice songwriter. She’d written songs in the past for sure. But for taking such a leap on this album by shouldering so much of the writing, she really impresses by ultimately sticking the landing.

Rattlin’ Bones definitely gets the extremities twitching at a number of different turns, and deftly explores all corners of bluegrass while remaining on the right side of the lines according to Father Bill’s rules. But there is a bit of sameness that creeps into the listening experience by the end. Without any stark contrast or dynamics, sometimes the music can fade into the background. Bronwyn is a great singer, but doesn’t exhibit significant range, while multi-part harmonies that could have helped texturize the experience go under-utilized.

But Bronwyn’s also not content with sticking to the same straightforward compositions. “Chasing Storms” co-written with Silas Lowe shows off dynamics that go from reserved to spirited, while the writing about the ruinous nature of a toxic relationship that seems impossible to extricate yourself from is one that draws you in. “Blink of an Eye” co-written with Jack McKeon shows off incredible compositional prowess were used to hearing from players like Béla Fleck or Billy Strings.

It’s almost like it’s the curse of traditional country and bluegrass aficionados to fall in love with a performer to only have them shove off to parts unknown beyond the shores of their original influences. Who knows, maybe Bronwyn will do similar at some point. But for now, she’s exactly where you want her to be, which is threading that fine needle of bluegrass reverence, while being able to find a new boldness within its borders.

8.1/10

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Stream/download Rattlin’ Bones // Purchase from Bronwyn